UK activists hold anti-Gitmo vigil

Dozens of campaigners have staged a protest outside the US Embassy in London to mark 11 years since the opening of the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison in eastern Cuba.

Protesters, some wearing orange jumpsuits and masks of US President Barack Obama or a dark sack around their heads, turned out for the demonstration in central London on January 11. They lit candles and read prisoners’ names in order to express their solidarity with the detainees.

Demonstrators said they’re angered by Obama’s failure to close the prison, despite making the promise to do so during his first campaign.

The activists also called for the release of Shaker Aamer, the Saudi-born British citizen, who has been held in the US military prison for more than a decade without having been charged with any offence.

Reprieve legal director Kat Craig said the Guantanamo Bay remains “a dark stain on the very idea of justice” as long as it stays open.

“The rounding up of hundreds of people, their horrific torture and indefinite detention far from the rule of law is as shocking today as it was eleven years ago,” she added.

Shaker Aamer was kidnapped in November 2001 in Afghanistan for allegedly leading a unit of fighters in the Asian country. He was transferred to the US-run military detention facility later on in 2002.

As there had been no evidence against Aamer, he was cleared for release under the administration of former US President George W. Bush in 2007 and also Barack Obama in 2009, but he was never set free despite reports revealing his torment because of long periods of being in solitary confinement.

In November last year, campaigners held a candlelit vigil in London’s Trafalgar Square, to mark the eleventh anniversary of Aamer’s illegal arrest. They also expressed concerns about physical and mental health of the last British resident in Guantanamo.